A small tour accompanied by our virtual guide

I have seen the Future…

Once inside you will be welcomed by a more than life-size Lara Croft and her friends all gathered on the historical spiraling staircase. You will encounter the famous Nimrod, enshrouded in his nearly mythical claim of having been the first computer game ever, presented on the 1951 West-Berlin Industrial Fair: a huge contraption boasting 480 vacuum tubes. Nimrod imitated the calculating robot visitors of the 1939 New York World Fair were asked to challenge. And whoever had played against this machine was awarded a badge declaring “I have seen the future”.

You will encounter the famous Nimrod

The opportunity to beat Nimrod was also seized by Ludwig Erhard, at that time Minister for Economic Affairs of West-Germany. Maybe he thought he would be able to master the challenge. But the machine defeated him. He was not the last one to experience being beaten by a computer. The Chancellor Konrad Adenauer observing his minister could not help but laugh. Yeah, those were the days.

On the right hand side, you will find our famous Wall of Hardware. Presenting more than 50 fan favourite toys covering the history of gaming to this day including: Apple II, Commodore PET, Atari, and Vectrex. Also a “Game & Watch”, an electronic LCD-game by Nintendo dating back to the almost biblical year of 1980. And of course, the Playstation from 1996. A history of curiosities since TV went interactive.